Strangely enough, the story of EH Publishing has never been told … on paper. So in celebrating 20 years of CE Pro, please allow me to indulge myself with this tale of our humble beginnings.

Ken Moyes was CEO of a $110 million security distribution company called Arius when I joined the company in 1990 in a marketing role.

A few years later, Ken and I launched a home automation division called Home Systems Plus, led by Richard Goldman, who was then one of the biggest HAI and Unity Systems dealers in the country. (Unity was founded by Tom Riley, who gets my vote as “father of home automation.”)

Ken stumbled across this dinky little magazine (more like a pamphlet) called Electronic House on the newsstand. He thought the brand would be useful for Arius, so he called the publisher hoping to work something out. The publisher basically told Ken, “Just take it.” And he did.

Arius didn’t want any part of it, so Ken bought it himself and sat on it, letting editor Lisa Montgomery continue to run editorial as she had done almost since 1986, when the first issue of EH was published.

Ken and I would muse that all of these consumers (well, all 12 who subscribed to EH) were being teased by this new technology called home automation, but they had no idea how to get their hands on the stuff. In other words, there was no formal installation channel. While CEDIA was founded in 1989, the organization didn’t really gain visibility until the mid-1990s, and there was certainly no publication serving this nascent channel.

So we figured we’d build a channel, tapping into our old security database. In 1993, we sent dealers special issues of Electronic House with a section called H.A. Pro. It gave Home Systems Plus, and other emerging trade partners, a venue to promote themselves to would-be customers.

Arius was sold in 1994. Ken left and I had to decide whether to stay or go. During breakfast at a local diner, Ken sketched his vision of EH Publishing on a napkin. Trite but true. He said he would take the plunge if I went with him. Otherwise, he’d pass.

The numbers and trajectories he sketched looked promising, but that’s Ken. There’s a term for his optimism. It’s called the Moyes Multiplier. But I went along.

I asked him how you run a publishing business. He replied, “I don’t know, we’ll figure it out. I guess I’ll be the publisher and you’ll be the editor.”

So here we are. Lisa Montgomery is still at Electronic House. She remains today one of the best reporters in the home technology field. I’m pretty sure I asked her on day one: How do you write a story? I still ask her that from time to time.

EH Milestones

First telephone call: We just plugged in our phone when the first call came in. I told Ken: You answer the phone. He said: You answer the phone. He won. The caller asked: How do I cancel my subscription to Electronic House?

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First email: I signed up for AOL in 1996 and emailed Richard Goldman. He was the only one I knew who had an email address.

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Lisa Montgomery and I Fed-Exed floppy discs to each other for the first few years of co-editing the magazines. Edits were made via fax. We got high-tech in 1996, sharing articles via email. Her AOL handle was lisaehouse, and mine was jjehouse. I think they’re both still active.

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The first standalone issue of H.A.Pro was January/February 2006, with Tom Doherty on the cover. We named him one of the Top 10 industry leaders in 2004, and he’s on our Top 20 list this year.

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We hired current CE Pro editor Jason Knott in 2000 from Security Sales magazine. He was my press contact when I was with Arius and was the brightest in the bunch of security editors. I had to work him a couple of years before he agreed to uproot himself and his wife from L.A. and move to Boston. We’d be dead without him. Well, I would be.

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Oh, and remember Tom Riley of Unity Systems? He served as ambassador to Morocco from 2003 to 2009. We still keep in touch.

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About the Author

Julie Jacobson, Co-Founder, EH Publishing / Editor-at-large, CE Pro

Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. Julie majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cambridge University, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. She's a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player currently residing in Carlsbad, Calif. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson. [More by Julie Jacobson]

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Comments
(displayed in order by date/time)

Posted by Buzz Goddard on 02/15 at 11:31 AM

Love that first phone call! And now we finally know who to blame (Jason) for your continued existence!

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 02/15 at 11:40 AM

Indeed, Buzz. We’d have burned out long ago if not for Jason.

Posted by Tim on 02/15 at 01:52 PM

Enjoyed the exchange…
Isn’t this kind of how everything get’s started?
When it doesn’t work out someone else gets to tell the story.

I LOVE it when people can and do tell a story on themselves…

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 02/15 at 02:11 PM

So true, Tim!

Posted by Bryan Stanton on 02/16 at 03:09 AM

Loved the story!

It reminded me of my early days in Hi-Fi publishing — such as the time I launched the first daily tabloid at CES in the early 70’s.

Went to the WInter CES in Chicago with no pre-written editorial “in the bank” as one’s editorial ethics required that all the copy be written fresh each day, reporting from the show floor. OMG!!!

I told my writers to ride the elevators but remove their show badges — got some great gossip & story ideas that way.

Somehow we all survived [on no sleep], but our youthful enthusiasm got the job done.